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Read recently
Feb. 9th, 2014 01:50 pmThe Last Time I saw You (Elizabeth Berg), a novel about people gathering for their 40th high school reunion, showing how people can transform past what they were then. It was rather better than I expected; I finally recognized the author as the one who wrote a collection of short stories I very much like, The Day I Ate Everything I Wanted.
His Majesty's Dragon (Naomi Novik), the first of a series about how dragons are used as the aerial wing of armies fighting in Napoleonic times, of course from the point of view of the British. I liked this one too, though I admit to glazing over some of the details of battles, even while appreciating how well the author has figured out those details.
The House at Riverton (Kate Morton), a novel narrated by a very old lady about things that happened in her youth, when she was a ladies' maid. Which sounds bland-ish (not blandish :-), but very much wasn't, with a careful jumping about chronologically so things came out in the correct order for the pace of the novel, including information even on the last page.
The First Chapbook for Foodies (Jeff Silverman, collected by and annotated by), a book of excerpts of other books about food, eating, cooking, and so on. It wasn't as satisfying as I'd wanted, unfortunately. Perhaps I just don't have the same tastes as the author.
Refusal (Felix Francis) (OK, technically, the title is "Dick Francis' Refusal," but it feels like that's more about branding and making sure consumers know there's another one out, because it certainly wasn't written by Dick Francis, given how long he's been dead now), another English horseracing mystery, this time with the novel question of how to deal with $problem appropriately, rather than figuring out who was behind $problem. Still mind candy, of course.
The Golden City (J. Kathleen Cheney), an alt-history novel set in 1902 Portugal, which is split in two countries. Plus there are selkies and mermaids and magic, in addition to science. I really enjoyed this, even though sometimes it felt like it was moving faster than the details given. Oh, and there was a typographical choice that kept throwing me off my reading pace: whenever there was a "ct" or an "st", there was a little curving connector from the first letter to the second. Pretty, but distracting, which led to a greater feeling of choppiness, because I kept on being thrown out of the flow zone I usually get when reading.
His Majesty's Dragon (Naomi Novik), the first of a series about how dragons are used as the aerial wing of armies fighting in Napoleonic times, of course from the point of view of the British. I liked this one too, though I admit to glazing over some of the details of battles, even while appreciating how well the author has figured out those details.
The House at Riverton (Kate Morton), a novel narrated by a very old lady about things that happened in her youth, when she was a ladies' maid. Which sounds bland-ish (not blandish :-), but very much wasn't, with a careful jumping about chronologically so things came out in the correct order for the pace of the novel, including information even on the last page.
The First Chapbook for Foodies (Jeff Silverman, collected by and annotated by), a book of excerpts of other books about food, eating, cooking, and so on. It wasn't as satisfying as I'd wanted, unfortunately. Perhaps I just don't have the same tastes as the author.
Refusal (Felix Francis) (OK, technically, the title is "Dick Francis' Refusal," but it feels like that's more about branding and making sure consumers know there's another one out, because it certainly wasn't written by Dick Francis, given how long he's been dead now), another English horseracing mystery, this time with the novel question of how to deal with $problem appropriately, rather than figuring out who was behind $problem. Still mind candy, of course.
The Golden City (J. Kathleen Cheney), an alt-history novel set in 1902 Portugal, which is split in two countries. Plus there are selkies and mermaids and magic, in addition to science. I really enjoyed this, even though sometimes it felt like it was moving faster than the details given. Oh, and there was a typographical choice that kept throwing me off my reading pace: whenever there was a "ct" or an "st", there was a little curving connector from the first letter to the second. Pretty, but distracting, which led to a greater feeling of choppiness, because I kept on being thrown out of the flow zone I usually get when reading.